Saturday, October 18, 2008

Speaking this afternoon at the foot of St. Louis' famous Gateway Arch, Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama addressed a crowd of some one hundred thousand people. If that number turns out to be correct, it would be Obama's largest audience to date in the US.

In July he attracted some 200,000 people to the Victory Column in Berlin. In the US, Obama previously drew an estimated 75,000 people to a Portland, OR, event in May and an audience of roughly 80,000 who listened to his acceptance speech in Denver in late August.

In his remarks, Obama stressed economic issues, his tax proposals and identified with voters' frustration over the current direction the country is headed. He also repudiated the negative campaign tactics of his Republican rival, John McCain. Recent polls have shown the race in Missouri to be very close. Its eleven electoral votes are being vigorously contested by both parties.